Semi-civil society: A missing link in explaining the transformation of communist dictatorships?

ABSTRACT Much has been written about civil society’s role in transforming communist regimes; however, scholars have largely ignored the officially sanctioned organizations. Yet, when political openings arise, official organizations evolve into ‘semi-civil society and play an important role in bringing down communist-led regimes. When a reformist regime begins opening up, semi-civil society turns to the regime and pressures it to reach make farther-reaching reforms, which can lead to a negotiated transition. When the regime is less open, semi-civil society turns to the opposition, which can help bring about an uprising. Semi-civil society by itself cannot bring down a regime or make it more pluralist, but it provides a missing link that has been absent from previous analyses of the collapse of communist regimes. This article applies these insights to a reformist Asian communist-ruled country: Vietnam (with reference to China). In such communist-ruled countries, semi-civil society is already making society more pluralist and we can it expect it to be a driving force for the further pluralization of society and possibly even its democratization. If these countries eventually democratize, semi-civil society will help them follow the Hungarian path to negotiated transitions rather than the Czechoslovak path to change through an uprising.